This document provides definitions and explanations of key concepts related to public policy. It begins by defining what is meant by "public" and "policy" individually. It then provides several definitions of public policy put forth by different scholars, noting there is no single agreed upon definition but general agreement that it involves government responses to public problems. The document outlines three main subfields of public policy: policy analysis, which focuses on determining the best options; policy evaluation, which examines the consequences of policies; and policy process, which studies how and why policies are made. It provides brief explanations of each subfield and concludes by distinguishing policies from laws.
2. OBJECTIVE
• To learn the definition and meaning of
public policy
• To learn the subfields of public policy.
ANTHONY DUENAS MPA STUDENT
3. WE DEFINE PUBLIC AS
• concerning the people as a whole.
• accessible to or shared by all members of
the community
• relating to a government
• relating to, or being in the service of the
community or nation
• relating to people in general
4. WE DEFINE POLICY AS
• a course of action adopted and pursued by
a government, ruler, political party
• a document embodying a contract of
insurance
• a principle to guide decisions and achieve
rational outcomes
• a statement of intent, and is implemented
as a procedure or protocol.
9. James Anderson 1994
“purposive course of action or inaction
undertaken by an actor or set of actors in
dealing witha problem or matter of
concern”
10. WILSON 2006
“The actions, objectives, and
pronouncements of governments on
particular matters, the steps they take (or
fail to take) to implement them, and the
explanations they give for what happen(or
does not happen)”
11. IS THERE A EXACT DEFINITION?
The bottom line is that there is no precise and universal
definition of public policy, nor is it likely that such a
definition will be conceived in the foreseeable future.
Instead, there is general agreement that public policy
includes the process of making choices and the
outcomes or actions of particular decisions; that what
makes public policy “public” is that these choices or
actions are backed by the coercive powers of the state;
and that at its core, public policy is a response to a
perceived problem (Birkland 2001).
12. SUBFIELDS OF PUBLIC POLICY
POLICY ANALYSIS
POLICY EVALUATION
POLICY PROCESS
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
1
2
3
13. POLICY PROCESS
• Research is focused on the how and why
of policymaking.
• Those who study policy process are
interested in finding out why governments
pay attention to some problems and not
others (agenda setting), why policy
changes or remains stable across time,
and where policy comes from.
14. POLICY EVALUATION
• “The consequences of what governments
do and say” (Dubnick and Bardes 1983)
• The fundamental question in policy
evaluation is empirical: what have we
done?
15. POLICY ANALYSIS
• Policy analysis focuses on ex ante
questions. The most fundamental of these
is: what should we do?
• To determine the best policy for public
authorities to adopt to address a give
problem or issue of concern.
• The challenge in policy analysis judgment
between effective and efficient
17. Policy
• Policies are only documents
• A policy is that which outlines what a
government is going to do and not to do
• Policies can be called a set of rules that
guide any government or any organization.
• Policies are objectives that an organization
or a government sets for itself to achieve
in a given period of time
18. Law
• Laws are the tools that help a government
achieve there objectives
• Laws are the standard rules and
regulations that are compulsory and to be
followed by all the people of the country
• Laws are set of principles that guide
people’s actions in various situations of life
